Of Fairytale Princes
by SamCyberCat
Summary: He knew from his past that his life was a stage being set for a fairytale, and he was determined to stop that from being so. YamixSeto, AU, Duelists of the Roses based, drabble fic.


At a young age the prince was sent from England to France because of the war. There he trained for most of his life. And although his guardian Shimon insisted that he learn the kingly routines he was set on becoming a soldier.

The druid was not in any position to disagree with the prince so he let him get on with his training, thinking the phase would pass soon. He was however quite wrong. The prince was now seventeen and the commander of his own fleet of soldiers. Every day he went out to fight to try and return to the home country he was denied access to.

At least (Shimon reasoned with himself) he was well educated. As long as he'd known him the prince had been obsessed with reading. Whenever he had a spare moment he would sit down with a good book and absorb it's content. Surely from reading these books he would learn how princes and kings were suppose to behave.

This was one of those moments where Prince Henry was not battling his enemies or planning an attack. As expected he was read a book. A fairy tale to be exact. And although in the current time setting fairy tales were more violent then the watered down versions parents tell to their children nowadays they still inevitably ended with the prince marrying the beautiful young maiden (Or princess, this point varied but the main plot point remained the same), defeating the villain and living happily ever after.

Contrary to what Shimon believed this did not teach him how to behave like a proper prince, it taught him to loathe it. He knew this stereotype summed up his life exactly. He was a prince who had lost his kingdom to an impostor called Henshin, just like the princes in the fairy tales. And if his story went as the fairy tales do he would meet a beautiful maiden (Or princess, he mentally added) fall in love with her, defeat Henshin, get married and live happily ever after.

Sure enough he wanted to defeat Henshin, but the other points he wasn't so sure upon. Marrying a maiden would affect his life too much, and his limited social skills reduced his chances of ever being successful with a woman. Not that being unsuccessful in that department bothered him much. Becoming king would go against his soldier lifestyle and as for living happily ever after… He couldn't think of a worse fate. To be taken away from the frill of the battle would kill him.

He poured over the pages of the book wishing, just for once, the story wouldn't end with "happily ever after" or begin with "once upon a time"…

Once upon a time there was a young prince of the age of five. His name was Henry.

Henry lived a very sheltered life in the palace, being raised to the ideal and keeping away from the unwanted views of the commoners. But it began to worry his parents that he had never had much, if any, contact with a child his own age. He hadn't ever requested for the company of another child but this just made his parents worry more that he was cut off from them and being forced to mature too soon.

So they considered a possible candidate for the prince's friend. He had to be of both high ranking and have the ability to protect the prince if need be. A high level of discipline and maturity wouldn't go amiss either, to set an example.

Many potential nobles offered their children to be the prince's companion but one stood out among the others. A young mage with six years of age lived very close to the palace. He was well versed in many subjects, possessed intelligence seemingly beyond his years and was currently being trained in healing magic that would help the prince should he get hurt.

This boy was called forth and ushered to the prince's room for the first time. He was a little confused at how to act around a new person of such high power and approached him with some caution.

The prince failed to notice this new arrival as he was used to people moving around the palace with business that didn't concern him. He simply continued with the jigsaw puzzle on the floor in front of him.

After looking over his shoulder the new boy decided to make himself known by saying, "I think that the light blue piece would go in that part of the puzzle, the sky is too dark where you're trying to put it now."

It took Henry a few seconds to comprehend that someone had spoken to him, let alone questioned his actions. He turned to face the new boy with a confused expression on his face.

"Who are you?" he asked, not adding on that if he wanted the piece of the puzzle to go in the dark blue part of the sky it would go there regardless.

It was a reasonable enough question, despite being very blunt, so the boy answered it, "My name is Seto Rosencraiz of the royal mages."

Henry was aware of the royal mages despite not knowing much about what they did. What this young one wanted with him was a mystery.

"And for what reason is a royal mage in my room?" he wondered aloud.

"I… I was sent here to keep you company," he replied honestly, hoping the prince wouldn't reject him.

Henry nodded in acknowledgement, "My parents told me that another child would be coming here, though I fear I won't be much company for you."

Seto was warned that the prince would be stubborn, and almost as well versed in his words as Seto himself.

"Perhaps we may have something in common my prince-"

"Call me Henry. No 'my prince' or 'your highness'. And I'll call you by your name instead of 'mage' Seto Rosencr… cr…" he cut off not knowing how to pronounce Seto's last name.

It was funny to see Henry stumble when he was trying to be smart, so Seto decided to help him out, "Rosen will be fine my pri-… Henry. Now, maybe I can help you with your puzzle."

He sat down next to the prince and the two spent the next few hours figuring out the jigsaw. At first a lot of time was wasted by Seto pointing out Henry was making mistakes, causing Henry to get frustrated, but after a while he learnt better as to where the pieces went and became less argumentative. By the end of the day the puzzle was complete.

"When will you be back?" Henry questioned, trying to sound causal despite being eager to spend more time with him.

"I shall return tomorrow prince Henry," said Seto, smiling.

As he left the room a messenger, who was in a hurry to get Seto's report of the day to the king and queen, approached him.

"How did it go?" He asked.

Knowing you had to be straight to the point with these people Seto answered, "The prince enjoys my company and I enjoy his. His anger levels are much lower already and I will be returning tomorrow."

Both parted their own way, as nothing further needed to be said.

The mage in training did return the next day, and the day after, and most days that followed for the rest of the year. He taught the prince many things that he did not know, mainly about mages and his lessons away from the palace, which the prince took an interest in. Gradually the two became close friends and would never be seen apart from each other.

One day Henry asked Seto why his hair was so long, to which Seto answered, "It may sound strange but long hair affects a mage's power. If my hair was short I would not be able to perform magic as easily."

"Why?"

Seto had to scratch his head for this one and admit he honestly didn't know.

Henry smiled, and Seto feared that the prince was going to make a big thing of finding a question he didn't know the answer to, but instead the prince reached into his pocket.

He looked somewhat awkward as he removed his hand; fists clenched around two unseen objects.

Blinking up at Seto he said, "My mum was telling me about people you love. I thought love was just for mummies and daddies, but she told me you could love anyone who's close to you. And… y-you see… I'm really close to you so I wanted to get you a present be… because I love you…"

He quickly thrust out his now open hand to show two pendants that looked like roses, one red and one white.

Taken by surprise Seto stared down at them not knowing what to say.

Worrying the prince would think he didn't like the present he broke the silence by asking, "Are they both for me?"

"No, just the white one," Henry answered, realising he forgot to mention this, "The white one represents friendship and I love you as a friend. The red one I'll keep so we both have one. Mum said it represents the fart."

"You mean 'the heart' Henry."

"No, no, it was definitely the fart," assured Henry, unaware of how wrong he was.

Not wanting to start an argument Seto let the mistake slide and put the pendant around his neck.

He helped Henry with his pendant saying, "Thank you my prince Henry, I love you too."

That night the two parted ways feeling happy and at peace with each other, not knowing what would follow soon after…

The next morning Henry was awoke sharply by one of the nurses.

"My prince we must go!" She urged, half lifting half dragging him out of his bed.

Still sleepy Henry was confused by this treatment, "What's happening?" he said.

"The palace is under attack," she responded, already walking him to the door, "Shimon said you must be taken from here immediately."

He struggled to try and get her to release him protesting, "I cannot leave without Seto!"

She continued walking, quickening her pace as screams were heard in the distance, saying, "Seto did not turn up to the palace this morning. He may be dead like your father."

Henry was so stunned that he didn't fight back anymore. He didn't resist as she took him out of the palace, or as he was past onto Shimon or as he was put on a boat to France.

Seto could be dead… His father _was_ dead… There was no escaping that…

At the current time Henry was still reading. These memories were behind him now and his concerns lay in defeating the enemy.

A messenger ran in, it was one of the soldiers Jou. This made Henry look up from his book.

"Henry," he called (Henry had insisted none of the men were to call him prince), "I have heard news that there has been a new army sent from England by Henshin to fight us!"

This came as no surprise; it had been a few days since Henry's men had defeated some of the weaker troops.

"Any specific details?" he asked, wanting to weigh up the enemy.

Jou sighed, knowing his commander would hate what follows, "These troops are much stronger then the others he's sent out. It appears he's finally starting to see us as a threat. And they're led by… Seto Rosencraiz."

"What?!" Henry stood up so quick that Jou jumped, even if he was prepared for the reaction.

This made no sense at all… Even if Seto hadn't been killed he would have still been trained as a mage. The chances of him becoming one of Henshin's soldiers were slim to none.

"What kind of hair does he have?"

The question puzzled Jou as it seemed irrelevant but he had to answer his superior, "His hair is short and brown sir."

"Short…" Henry trailed off; appearing to forget Jou was there for the moment.

Taking advantage of this Jou cut in, "You knew Rosencraiz when you were kids didn't you? Maybe if you told him who you were-"

"Do you really want to do that?" Henry replied firmly.

If he told Seto who he was there would be two possible scenarios: the first being that Seto would think he was a liar and fight him even harder and the second being that Seto would believe him. To Henry's mind if Seto believed him the outcome would be much worse. If Seto believed him then he would help him get back to England, defeat Henshin, marry the beautiful maiden and live happily ever after.

If this was the ending destiny had picked out for him he was rejecting it. Seto came to him as a soldier, so Henry would fight him as a soldier.

"Forgive my harshness Jou but I believe Rosencraiz would think we are trying to trick him. I have changed so much that he wouldn't recognise me or accept me."

Jou nodded, "As you say sir."

Placing down his book Henry went to plan his first attack. He had no time for fairy stories.


End file.
